Both groups froze for two seconds. Then the dozen gang members rushed towards Jack, Brian and Lucas.

Brian pulled out his gun and shot at the oncoming gang members.

“Run! Run! Pull out your QR codes!” Brian yelled and pushed them back inside the metal building and slammed the door shut behind him.

They ran down the hallway into the nearest VR rooms and Lucas and Jack scanned their QR codes. The hispanic gang was rushing into the building and Brian shot at them.

Jack and Lucas jumped into their own rooms and the metal doors slammed shut. They were safe for now.

After using the Marksmanship: Rank 1 skill to shoot one of them in the chest, the hispanics took cover for a moment and Brian used that moment to scan his QR code. Just one second after Brian jumped into the safety of his room, he heard the sound of a bullet flying past where he just was.

The metal door behind him slammed shut.

For about ten seconds, Brian sat on the metal floor. Unmoving. He was taking in deep breaths.

He checked his body for bullet wounds. There were none. He inhaled and exhaled slowly.

“Oh fuck, I have to hurry!” Brian said out loud when he realized there might be more hispanics waiting inside the stone plaza of the game and that Jack and Lucas were waiting for him. They were in danger.

…

Blink.

Brian appeared in the stone plaza. The sky was black. It was nighttime.

He stood up and looked around. He spotted Lucas and Jack.

There were a few people around and about in the big stone plaza, but he didn’t spot anybody threatening.

“Fucking come, let’s get the fuck out of here,” Jack said. And they all walked very quickly towards the Balloon Monster tunnel exit. And then they ran into the forest.

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After running for a bit, they felt safe enough to sit down and take a break and discuss plans.

“Okay, so we are what some might call Fucked, with a capital F,” Lucas said.

Nobody said anything for ten seconds.

“Okay, state facts. If we go outside the hispanics will be waiting there. I don’t know how they knew it was us. Or maybe they didn’t. Who cares. They know now,”

Jack said.

“And more facts. It would appear that I do not have the monopoly on guns,” Brian said, and explained what happened in the hallway. “And even worse facts, I’m out of bullets.”

Jack took a deep breath. “Okay. We don’t leave this game. Until we are strong enough to kill those shits. Let’s train our mana skills. No way anybody else here has figured that out.”

“Okay genius, can our mana skills give us food? How we gonna eat?” Lucas said.

“We have rations for maybe two days. But I think like we saw with the grasshopper monsters, we can cook that meat and eat it. And we can keep exploring. See if there’s other useful monsters. I say we gather a lot of loot and a lot of skill points. And then maybe in one week when the hispanics let their guard down, we try to make a break for it? I’m not sure. And avoid people in this game,” Brian said.

They agreed with Brian’s plan and decided to do a little grinding while walking inland. This time they got lucky and after only killing 12 Balloon Monsters, one of them dropped a skill crystal. It was Lucas’ turn to pop one.

“Please be useful,” Lucas said.

“You just jinxed yourself,” Jack said.

Surfing: Rank 1

Lucas sighed in frustration and laid down on the ground. He explained what skill he got.

“Well I’m not doing any more shit today. I wanna sleep,” Lucas said.

“Let’s move a little more inland and then find a spot to sleep and take shifts staying on watch for the hispanics and clearing monsters at night,” Jack said.

“I hope the monsters aren’t stronger at night,” Brian said.

“Only one way to find out,” Jack said.

They walked farther into the Balloon Monster territory until they spotted a monster. It was harder to see at night, but there was a moon in the game giving some moonlight. Instead of their usual grinding formation, all three of them were walking side by side, in close formation.

“Okay, I have this one,” Jack said, and walked forwards and killed the monster.

“It’s the same as during day. Not stronger, I think we’re fine. This spot is good. I can take the first watch, you two get some sleep,” Jack said.

Lucas and Brian nodded and found a small clearing and used their backpacks as pillows and slept.

Jack sat on his backpack 2 meters away from them and rested his machete on his lap.

This is life now. I like it. It’s way more exciting than before. Of course, I’m stressed. But I feel like the future has nothing but better and better things to offer. I have my friends. I have skill points. I have adventure.

The next noon, after sleeping for only 4 hours each, they received the following notification.

Challenge: Explore farther inland

Reward: 1 skill point